Buddy of mine was saying Walther's cut the dealer discount recently. That and raised prices. If I get any, I'll wait til they are on firesale at Walther's...which we all know is bound to happen.
WHY....WHY is Walthers just going in the 'TANK'. Can ANYBODY give a rational, logical, knowlegable explanation of what is going on??????????? Dismayed and Perlexed!!!!!!!!
Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. The new run comes with Micro-Trains (as opposed to Accumate) couplers. -Mark
I guess Walthers should be commended for trying to upgrade their terminology to the 21st century, even if their mech is still strictly 1990's. Hey, at least it's not 1960's. -Mark
Except your arguing about two different models. If someone is in the market for a SW1200, then they don't have much of a choice do they????
And further... what assumptions? Here's a fact: That the difference between the MSRP and one e-tailers price is only 12 1/2%. Any conclusions about dealer discounts, etc. are left to the reader. Meanwhile, I'm debating whether I should offload my older SW's (Life-Like runs) since I don't expect I'll ever want to wedge decoders into them (file under: Life Is Too Short).
Hey I'm grateful that more manufacturers don't do this to us. It could be worse we still have choices. Hoorah!
Sure they do. The previous releases are out there on Ebay for far less money. This has been one of (if not the) driver for the howling you hear. People expect to get more when they pay more (imagine that) and the latest release fails to meet those expectations. Most new Atlas and Kato offerings are lower in (market) price than the latest market price for the SW9.
And by the same token, if you're in the market for a switcher you'd like to easily upgrade to DCC ... there's not much choice, either. At least not a choice that includes the SW. Jim
But if you're primary consideration is dcc support, then you have all manufacturers of all switchers to choose between.
Exactly! All the manufacturers ... except Walthers. Yes, if you absolutely have to have an SW, you're limited. But if you're like me and you just need a couple dependable switchers (and DCC is in your plans), you'd choose anything but an SW. Unfortunately, I just got billed today for the SW I ordered back when it was going to be "DCC ready." I wasn't going to screw the dealer over and cancel my order ... but I had hoped it had been lost. Damn! If I had that money back, it would be going to Kato. Jim
Except that they've upgraded the worm gears, made the wheels RP25, and added MT couplers. So if they want that, then they'd go for the latest release. Honestly guys, if a guys wants DCC in a SW900/1200, they'll buy this, and either do it themselves or pay to have someone do it. It's that simple. I bought an Atlas GP30 Classic because I wanted a GP30, I didn't care if it was "DCC Friendly" or not. And I paid market value for it. 99% of the buyers out there think this way.
I don't mind buying something that isn't DCC ready, but I am not going to shell out $100 for a switcher that is billed as "DCC Ready" when it is clearly a totally meaningless designation. I can go get one of the older LL ones used for around $20-30, throw some couplers on it if I don't like the stock ones, and do my surgery with a DZ125 and still come in far below $100, and I may even get a road name I want to boot. If it seems like a good deal to you, by all means go ahead. If I want a CBQ switcher I'll order either the Kato NW2 re-release coming out next month or the Atlas VO-1000 coming out next year some time. They're both at least designed with DCC conversion in mind. After getting duped by Walthers Proto N when the GP38-2 came out billed initially as having a decoder board available (and the insert that came with mine even said it was drop-in decoder ready) and then finding out that they had never actually gotten anyone to make a decoder for it, and that further the motor wasn't very well isolated, I decided that with Walthers Proto N that I would only buy things AFTER I had a chance to determine that all the claims they made were true, and I am glad I didn't jump at this announcement. On the other hand, when I found out that the 0-8-0 switchers actually DID have an 8 pin plug I went ahead and purchased two of them.
The wheels have never been a problem with me (I have used Atlas wheelsets in a couple just to see how it worked) and I can replace the worms myself. Total cost of these parts is less than a $10 bill. Add another $30-$40 for an older version from Ebay (bought a NIB Norforlk and Western 2 weeks ago for $24.00, see link below) and I will have less than $50 in it. An innovative person capable of installing a decoder on these would not buy the new version when they can make the improvements themselves for a fraction of the price. I know I won't. http://www.ebay.com/itm/130802541794?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
So the one biggest improvement that was made to these and no one has mentioned it in 6 pages yet... The wheels now have a dish to them instead of being flat and sticking out like a sore thumb. I'm glad they did nothing to the frame. I'm tired of converting all my new locomotives back to DC.
First off, let me state that I'm a big fan of Walthers products in general, and that I love the Life-Like (now Walthers) SW9/1200/etc in particular. I loved the first one I ever bought (now 10+ years ago) and haven't found any reason to suddenly start disloving them. They are superb models that run every bit as good as they look (IMHO). Hell, I've even installed decoders in them without winding up in the hospital. HOWEVER, I do have a problem with Walthers' decision to include this nebulous new feature - "DCC Friendly" - when they announced this most recent production run. I immediately assumed (as apparently did a lot of others), that it meant a change in design that would allow for easier decoder installation. I placed my pre-orders based solely on that particular piece of marketing nonsense. And knowing what I know now, I would never have bothered ordering any at all (being completely happy with my existing fleet of "basically the same" SW's). Walthers can spin their definition of "DCC Friendly" any way they like, but the overt implication at the time (at least to me) was that there was something new here (ala their recent GP20 and GP60 re-releases that were truly redesigned to be DCC Ready). And for that I feel justifiably jobbed. Sidebar - a couple of recent posts have implied that Walthers listed these as being "DCC Ready". That is not true. Go to their website - it says "DCC Friendly" (meaningless I know, but "DCC Ready" really does mean something specific). -Mark
OMG!! I can only wonder where you picked up that percentage from...LOL. You are throwing out #'s that there is no basis for. Can you show us a website or survey to substantiate such a claim...PLEASE!
